The year so far has been a mix of bad and worse stuff happening, with a few rays of light mixed in between. It’s been a hectic few months, with many massive events taking place. Going between terror attacks, union breakups, presidential elections, surprising Nobel awards, health threats at a global level, refugee issues and so on, it feels like we weren’t given a chance to catch our breaths. Insidermonkey experts made a list of 10 biggest headlines of 2016.

It wasn’t all bad, though. Some good things happened over this year, but they were difficult to pick. There were international accords taking place, scientific advancements, historical accords between churches and other events that we’ll talk about more in the pages that follow. While 2017 has a chance to be better than this year, things aren’t looking to be too bright in the future either. You can read our list of 10 Countries that Have the Most Refugees, as well.